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Class Action Suit Against RIAA Can Proceed
fourohfour writes "Ars Technica is running a story on Tanya Andersen, who was awarded attorney fees in September of last year after the RIAA dropped their case against her. The RIAA subsequently appealed that award, but a US District Court judge yesterday not only upheld the award, but also upheld the dismissal of her counterclaims without prejudice. They may now be heard as part of a malicious prosecution lawsuit against the RIAA. Andersen is seeking class action status for her lawsuit, so that anyone else who has not engaged in illegal file sharing but has been threatened with legal action by the RIAA may join in. This is the case that alleges that the RIAA attempted to contact Andersen's then eight-year-old daughter under false pretenses without her permission."
...even though the lawyers will take the lion's share of the money awarded in such a lawsuit, I hope that the sum awarded the plaintiffs is large enough to deter the MAFIAA from prosecuting under such dubious "John Doe" discoveries in the future.
Militant Agnostic: "I don't know, and damn it, neither do you!"
Counts us all out then
If I had an Ass, I'd call it Fanny Bottom, then I could slap my Ass; Fanny Bottom, on the Arse.
Indeed, nothing I hate worse than dirtily-laundered Nazi's. >=(
I was waiting for this to happen, and finally, it did. Now, my mind races forward, to the end of the suit, maybe decades ahead: up to how much money can the RIAA be held accountable for? What I mean is, how much money can they be fined till they are bankrupt? Can (or should) the RIAA member companies actually pay the fine - in which case we're talking much larger sums?
"The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
From TFA:
"The RIAA has denied any wrongdoing and has moved for dismissal of the lawsuit."
Hurdles, hurdles..
Trying to contact the young daughter without permission, what did they do, offer her candy to get into a van with them? RIAA-pedos.
Pfft. I HATE dirtily-laundered Illinois Nazis
The end result?
RIAA loses. Everyone gets a coupon worth $1 off the latest (DRM laden) Britney Spears CD.
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
From TFA: "Her complaint contains some very disturbing allegations, including one that labels attempted to contact her then eight-year-old daughter under false pretenses without Andersen's permission."
Hi, Sally, this is Mr. Nice calling, is your mommy home? No? Good... I mean, uh, well then can I just talk to you for a minute instead? Tell me Sally, how would you feel about living with a foster family after we toss your mommy in the clink? I mean, she's subjecting you to gangsta rap, for Heaven's sakes, we'd be doing you a favor!
The House Between - Original Sci-Fi Series
I would hope that the Malicious Procecution judgement would make it easier to procescute under RICO statues, given that the extortion has been proven in a court of law, and that the class action suit would further canonize the scope of their extortions into case law. I'm not a lawyer, but it seemed like the Federal case against Michael Vick made the state's case and open and shut event. This seems like the same kind of thing.
Then they should hammer the media companies on conspiracy charges because they are the ones knowingly financing the RIAAs shenanagins, that have already been proven illegal.
Forgive my spelling from time to time. I'm often posting during short breaks.
Unless those RIAA Jerkoffs are eventually dressed in orange jumpsuits. If current Class Action precedent holds, the plaintiffs will all get coupons for a free Britney Spears album as compensation while the lawyers clean up!
This is going to be the best litigation show on slashdot since the Sco vs. Novell chronicles.
Patriot - A fan of expanding government power and spending while not wanting to pay higher taxes.
Bearded Dragon
We have an article about how a class action suit can proceed against the RIAA. Scroll down a bit and there is a story about Microsoft opening up their binary formats. For free. Download them from their webpage. Scroll down a bit more and there is an article about a trial finally being set to see what SCO owes Novell.
What gives?
Did I slip through some wormhole in space and land in a universe where wishes are granted? Is it April 1st? Next thing I expect to see is a release date for Duke Nukem Forever.
I may just buy some lottery tickets on the way home tonight, just to see if the streak continues.
Weaselmancer
rediculous.
The title of the story seems to indicate that a class action suit is underway against the RIAA. That is not the case. The judge's dismissal of the case without prejudice simply means that she can now file a lawsuit and attempt to have her class certified. Class certification is a very complicated process and probably won't happen.
Firstly I'm in the UK, the RIAssA et al can stuff themselves.
Secondly I don't share music. (Yep, that's a full stop!) I'm able to afford to buy any that I take a fancy to. Haven't bought a CD for almost a year now though, prefer to switch on the radio.
Pr0n OTOHBonus: We now have the BBC streaming iPlayer, who could ask for anything more?
If I had an Ass, I'd call it Fanny Bottom, then I could slap my Ass; Fanny Bottom, on the Arse.
Unfortunately with the ludicrous lawsuit the people of New Orleans filed against the federal government (I mean in terms of how much money they want), other lesser lawsuits will surely be ignored just on their lack of ostentatiousness.
The only way the class action suit against the RIAA can make any progress is if they sue for One novemdecillion dollars!!
Just the name of the number itself inspires awe.
Think about it.
I have nothing compelling to say
Contacting children for legal or financial matters without consent and presence of a legal guardian should carry mandatory jail time for those responsible, at least if their age was apparent at the time of the transaction. It's easy to see how an 8 year old can be persuades to give out parents' credit card numbers, incriminate themselves needlessly, give false testimony in exchange for promise of a shiny new gadget and otherwise be exploited by a malicious adult. This is a far more serious matter than copyright infringement which only results in a financial loss of trivial amounts of money.
From TFA: "Her complaint contains some very disturbing allegations, including one that labels attempted to contact her then eight-year-old daughter under false pretenses without Andersen's permission."
... what are you doing? Why don't you have a seat over there.
RIAA: Hello little girl...
Chris Hansen: I'm Chris Haaaaansen
Did you see the rain last night? All those donuts are rotting in the street!
Bad Boys,
Bad Boys,
Whatcha gonna do?
Whatcha gonna do when they come for Yoooooou?
I bet he feels like a total @$$, getting the RIAA sicked on a disabled single mother and her (then) 8-year-old daughter. That, or he feels like a champ. (Depending on whether he has a conscience.)
Unless, of course, the settlement is 5 coupons for CD's.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
That appears to be a good thing, but I do not think it will necessarily be an easy class to certify. While each jurisdiction with class action legislation has its own version of the following, often with rather concise tests for each element, the general idea is as follows:
A court will certify a class proceeding where there is:
1. An identifiable group
2. With a cause of action that has a triable issue
3. With an appropriate class representative
4. Whom all have common issues
5. and Whose conflict is best resolved by a class action.
In this case, on 1:
Is the identifiable group people who have been sued by the RIAA? The more it is a subset of individuals who have not just been sued by the RIAA, but a subset of that group that has suffered other behaviour and that other behaviour is key to the group, the less identifiable the group is (so to speak).
On 2:
Is there a cause of action for just being sued by the RIAA? If everything that the plaintiff pleads is true, and this would not give rise to a legal judgment, then the action may be dismissed at certification. This is often just a screener to certification of frivolous claims, and some jurisdictions do not have it.
On 3:
Is this lady the best class representative? Can she fund the litigation (in part, though not to the end)? Does she have any interests averse to that of the class?
On 4:
If the case requires more details of how the RIAA treated each individual, then there's an argument that the individual issues predominate over the common ones.
The stronger the case that the RIAA bringing a suit against any individual gives rise to legal remedy,the more the RIAA had a documented pattern of behaviour, the better.
On 5:
If a class proceeding is not the "best" way to resolve a conflict, sometimes it will not be certified. Alternatives including bringing a test case, individual cases, and alternative dispute resolution.
Again, the tests vary significantly from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, but that's the general framework of the hurdle that the plaintiff will have to get over in order to certify her action as a class action.
Ha, what do you want ? That was expected.
What the RIAA should do is throw us all off guard and say
"you're right! fair use! we're wrong, you're right! here take our ill-gotten gains and here have our Samauri sword and please please please be swift and merciful!
Then everyone would be completely confused, erase their file sharing software and run to Wal-mart to buy CDs.
The RIAA uses a ridiculous method of determining damages per violation. They value damages at $750/song. If the defendants use similar inflation, the RIAA could be accountable for a lot. Anyone know how many people they've accused? And how many songs? I hope the courts don't store damages in a 32-bit float.
"Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much." - Oscar Wilde
Heh, more like coupons for DRM laden downloads of music for your .
This issue is a bit more complicated than you think.
The lawyers all buy retirement mansions.
No sig today...
RIAA's new logo is a serpent sucking its own cock tail!
From what I've read of the RIAA, I wouldn't be surprised if they pushed their agenda even stronger against those who were named by the RIAA and chose not to join in the class action suit. They would probably argue, by making the decision to not join in the class action suit against the RIAA you are indrectly claiming you did participate in illegal file sharing.
I hate all sigs, even this one.
Ok. Bitter retorts, sarcasm, and soul crushing pessimism. We're back to normal.
I was worried there for a moment.
Weaselmancer
rediculous.
...is to have the RIAA compensate this individual for the full copyright-violation value of every last song they alleged that she infringed on. The law should have no mercy, just as they've argued Jammie should have none, and they must pay around $10,000 per song for every song they alleged that Tanya downloaded and shared. Maybe even treble damages, in that their investigation and prosecution was allegedly malicious. After all, if they refused to listen to reason and harassed this woman and her daughter for months, and screwed-up their lives and forced the woman to risk what few assets she has to pay for lawyers, it's only right that the judgment stings the RIAA and the record companies that collaborated with them just as they were trying to sting the woman they victimized. There should be no lawsuits of the nature of what the RIAA pursues without substantial risk should they lose because they failed to do their due diligence in building an airtight case.
Think about the psychological damage to the child if there were negative consequences of such revelations - either directly or through the damage of the child-parent relationship.
Yeah, jail would be nice - with a lot of soap that is just too slippery to hang on to in the shower..
Insert
Jury of your peer will say, "Hmm... this jury duty really sucks."
I've been called for jury duty twice but wasn't picked either tyme to serve on a jury. And I was hoping to be picked to serve on a jury deciding a drug case. I wanted to use the third box in protecting liberty, the first two being the soap and ballot boxes and the fourth the ammo box.
FalconShould there be a Law?
Aren't you, simply by virtue of the fact of being in possession of RIAA "controlled materials" constantly under threat of falling under one of their malicious and frivolous lawsuits? It's bad enough that I've started looking for their stamp on any music I buy and refusing to purchase anything with their seal of approval - solely based on the fear of becoming a victim of one of their lawsuits.
I'll take my check in a large please.
Hopefully next *year* SCO will finally be dead, dead, dead but by then I figure it'll be replaced by some Microsoft patent FUD. In other words, business as usual.
This is MS patent FUD, MS is just using SCO as a surrogate.
FalconShould there be a Law?
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